Sega Genesis joystick controller pinout

Sega Genesis used a slightly different approach in joystick connection than Atari. The Sega joystick pinout seems to be the standard 2-button joystick configuration where pins 6 and 9 are used for buttons which ground the pin when pressed. The only strange thing is that the joystick seems to also want +5V at pin 5. Sega has added a 6-button model in addition to its original 3-button configuration. The 6-button joysticks use essentially the same interface, but add more buttons by using extra circuitry that multiplexes the new button signals with the existing joystick signals, using the control bit in connector pin 7. The chip inside the controller is a 74HC157. This is a high-speed CMOS quad 2-line to 1-line multiplexer. The console can, with help of the Select pin, choose from two functions on each input. If pin 7 is left floating the controller defaults to this line being high.

Pin

Name (Select=GND)

Name (Select=+5V)

1

Up

Up

2

Down

Down

3

Gnd

Left

4

Gnd

Right

5

+5VDC

+5VDC

6

Button A

Button B

7

Select

Select

8

Ground

Ground

9

Start

Button C

How to connect Sega Genesis joystick to PC:

It is possible to adapt a joystick originally developed for Sega Genesis to be used on a PC. After connecting the joystick to the PCs parallel port, you must install a driver so the operating system recognizes the device as a joystick.